


Dinner Disaster

by alecmagnuslwb



Series: The Immortal Inquisitor and High Warlock of Alicante [19]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, the pack of children i invented for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25955050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alecmagnuslwb/pseuds/alecmagnuslwb
Summary: With Magnus away for the night the Lightwood-Bane kids settle into their fate of an Alec made dinner that isn't breakfast food.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: The Immortal Inquisitor and High Warlock of Alicante [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1360348
Comments: 10
Kudos: 103
Collections: Favorite Malec Stories





	Dinner Disaster

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's month day 17, prompt: Cooking

“Dad what are we doing for dinner since Papa’s not here?” Talia, their sixth child who’s actually their second oldest asks sliding into the kitchen on socked feet. She’s the only of their six children that wasn’t adopted as a baby, taken from a dangerous home life and placed with them when she was already three years old. She’s ten now and thriving in ways that make Alec and Magnus beam with pride every day.

“Careful,” Alec says as she slides into the wall. She steadies herself and smiles up at him. “As for dinner, I’m working on it now.”

Talia brightens up at that.

“Breakfast for dinner, breakfast for dinner!” she chants doing a little happy dance her feet sliding on the floor again.

Alec snorts and smiles as she grooves around, he’s a little disappointed that he’s going to take her happy dance down a notch with his next words.

“Not breakfast,” he says and her dancing freezes. “We’re having lasagna.”

Talia tilts her head for a moment. “Oh, so Papa left us something. Cool,” she says and twirls around to leave kitchen.

Usually Magnus might have magicked them something up or made it himself, but he’d been called out last minute for an emergency in New York per Catarina and Madzie’s request rushing out the door with not a moment to spare so he hadn’t had the chance.

“No, I’m making it,” Alec says and she freezes in the doorway. He knows why, it’s no secret to Alec that his husband isn’t the only one who questions his cooking abilities outside of breakfast, but he’d hoped his children would start giving him the benefit of the doubt at some point. He’s been practicing after all. “And it’ll be ready in a couple minutes, so get the rest of the pack and set the table okay.”

She turns and nods at her Dad, her happy dance breakfast for dinner face is gone now replaced with a resigned look. Alec tries not to be offended. 

“Guy’s dinners almost ready,” Talia shouts and Alec lets it slide even though they’ve told her that get your siblings means actually physically go get them, not scream across the loft for them. 

The stampeding sound of six kids is the next thing he hears and then quiet, well not really quiet cause try as they might the six of them are terrible at whispering. He can’t quite make out what they’re saying though he guarantees it’s Talia giving them all a proper warning that Alec has left the comfort of breakfast foods for their dinner tonight.

Next he hears a rush of magic from at least two of the kids and the sounds of the table setting itself. Chairs scrape out as Alec takes the lasagna out of the oven.

It smells like a lasagna should, or he’s pretty sure it does at least. He’d used one of his own mother’s recipes this time, so if it’s bad it’s on her.

 _There you go Alec, blame grandma if they complain_ he thinks to himself before working to cut the lasagna before setting it out on the table.

The cut is a little tougher than lasagna should be but he ignores it chalking it up to the oven temperature, certain the flavor will still be good. He’s had his share of lasagna failures over the years, but this one feels right.

Once he’s done he picks up the large dish and walks out to the dining room table that’s been set. All six of the kids sit in their usual spots, patiently waiting with clearly fake smiles on their faces about the prospect of a dad made dinner.

Again, Alec tries not to be offended.

Felix is the only one moving around, poking at his twin sister Tulip with his fork as she purposely keeps her head forward ignoring him.

“Felix leave your sister alone,” Alec chides as he sits the lasagna down at the center of the table. Felix drops the fork giving Alec a big innocent grin. Alec just shakes his head and starts dishing out the lasagna then one piece for each of them. It’s a little darker around the edges than it should be, but nothing looks burnt to a crisp and it does still smell like lasagna so Alec’s feeling confident to call this dish a win. Once everyone has been served he sits in his usual spot picking up the basket of garlic bread that sits in what’s usually Magnus’ seat.

The basket passes around the table, Felix piling half the basket onto his plate while his brother Ragnor watches in horror before handing it over to Isadora who always sits on the other side of Alec.

“Alright, dig in,” Alec says gesturing to the hesitant table. And dig in they do, to the garlic bread. The pulled from the freezer and stuck in the oven for eight minutes garlic bread that had taken no work at all.

“Come on guys, I’m not trying to poison you. You can actually eat the main course,” he says gesturing at his own portion on the plate in front of him. They all look to Summer immediately seeking guidance from their oldest sister instead of trusting their dad, who is once again trying not to be offended.

Summer looks at her plate and then Alec who decides to pull out his best sad Dad look which gets them every time. She sighs looks back down at her plate and cuts off a piece of lasagna. The tiniest piece she could possibly cut, but a piece nonetheless.

The other five follow suit. Felix however who wouldn’t know portion control if it knocked him over the head cuts off a huge piece and shoves it in his mouth.

Summer is the first to react.

“Mmmm,” she says her face not at all matching her delighted reaction. The rest of the kids follow suit, chewing slowly and swallowing down their tiny bits of lasagna.

Alec squints his eyes at them all watching as they each follow up their bites with a chug of water or in Talia’s case a whole piece of garlic bread.

Felix takes the longest to react and Alec’s fully bracing himself for his fake delighted response, but true to form, too honest for his own good little Felix doesn’t hold back.

“Ugh, Dad,” he says once he’s finally chewed the entire chuck he’d put on the end of his fork. “That is terrible.”

Summer shoots a glare at her little brother, a glare he ignores.

“What? It is,” he says before turning to his pile of garlic bread and going to town. “Dad always says we should be honest with him and Papa,” he says through a mouthful of bread.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Alec says cutting his own piece of lasagna. Felix shrugs a little sheepishly shoving in another piece of garlic bread. “There’s no way it’s that bad, I followed your grandma’s recipe exactly.”

And there he goes already throwing his mom under the bus. He puts the fork in his mouth and the first burst of flavor that hits his tongue is great, his kids are crazy, but then he makes the fatal mistake of chewing. The consistency is all wrong, the noodles are crunchy on the edges but somehow wet in the center and the filling has a buoyancy similar to jello more so than the soft cheese feeling it should have.

Felix is right it’s terrible.

He swallows down the bite holding back a grimace.

“It tastes great,” he says before taking a long drink. Six identical eyebrow raised expressions that they all inherited from him are shot his way.

“Dad,” Isadora says a little pitying reaching out to pat his hand lightly. He’s being consoled on his bad cooking by one of his seven-year old’s, what a day. 

Alec is just stubborn enough for a moment that he considers just eating this whole lasagna so his kids will stop knocking his cooking so much, but the memory of the jello cheese in his mouth tells him he can’t.

“Fine,” he relents dropping his fork on his plate. “The consistency is terrible, but it does taste like a lasagna you have to give me that at least.”

“Do we though?” Summer says her face scrunching up. Alec huffs taking a bite out of his own piece of garlic bread in defeat.

The kids all look around at each other, it’s a look he and Magnus have grown used to. It’s one of their little silent group conversations. Eventually they all nod in agreement and turn back to face their dad.

Summer takes the lead, she’s a teenager now and the sassy look on her face shows it.

Talia is confident at her big sister’s side while Ragnor, Isadora and the twins are all sporting identical looks and it’s in moment’s like these he wishes they’d spaced their kids out a bit more, the four of them being within a year of one another is a dangerous thing sometimes.

The six of them are a united front and if it wasn’t against him Alec would be extremely proud.

“We think, for your benefit and all of ours and Papa’s too, you should officially throw in the towel on all non-breakfast related dishes and foods,” Summer says diplomatically her hands twined together in front of her like she’s selling him a business deal.

“Come on I’m getting better,” Alec tries and defends. He is, if these kids knew about the stew they’d be shocked at how much Alec’s improved over the years. They’re clearly not buying it though, all titling their heads with pitying smiles.

“Fine, if you all feel this way,” he pauses looking for confirmation. All six of them shake their heads a little too eagerly. “Fine. I’ll stick to breakfast; you won’t have to suffer through me trying to be a good dad and feeding you all balanced meals anymore.”

He knows he’s laying it on a little thick, but he’s gonna be a little wounded about the fact all six of his children have betrayed him like this and turned on his cooking. Not even Ragnor, who’s deeply empathetic is siding with him in this fight.

“Can I summon pizza for us now?” Summer asks after she grants Alec a moment to wallow.

Alec waves a hand, “Yeah, go ahead.”

Cheers break out around the table as Summer banishes away Alec’s evil lasagna and conjures up a legit Italian pizza that Alec recognizes from one of the places he and Magnus often frequent for date night. The kids dive in and that’s when Alec notices Magnus creeping into the doorway with a smile on his face, clearly trying not to laugh.

Each of the kids pop up from the pizza for a millisecond to say hi as Alec pushes back from the table to greet his husband.

He kisses him lightly on the cheek then steps back his arms crossed.

“How much of that did you hear?”

“From right around when you threw your dear mother’s recipe under the bus without blinking,” Magnus chuckles reaching up and placing his hands on each side of Alec’s neck. The touch eases Alec’s arms down and he pulls Magnus in close for a hug.

“I can’t believe our kids called me out like that,” he mumbles into Magnus’ shoulder defeated. Magnus runs his hands up and down Alec’s back soothingly.

“Yes, you can,” he says pressing a kiss to Alec’s temple.

“Yeah, I guess I can,” Alec pulls back and shrugs. “Everything go okay?”

Magnus nods. “Things got a little dicey there for a bit, but everyone’s unscathed. I’ll tell you all about once the hooligans have gone to bed.”

Alec nods and leans in for a kiss, slow and welcoming. A nice comfort after being bombarded by their children five minutes ago.

“If you two want any of this pizza you’re gonna want to stop being so mushy and get over here,” Summer says breaking them apart from one another.

Alec looks over at the four decimated pizza’s and reaches over grabbing a whole half of one that’s left for him and Magnus. He pulls out Magnus’ chair and settles back into his own listening happily to his kids as they fight over toppings, egg Felix on to put as many pieces of garlic bread into his mouth at once as he can and regale their days to Magnus even if they are a bunch of little betrayers. 

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: [alecmagnuslwb](https://alecmagnuslwb.tumblr.com/)


End file.
